Rebuilt McDonald's on Strip ushers in corridor project

The McDonald's on Cumberland Avenue reopened after being closed for renovations for eight weeks. When it reopened Sept. 27, 2011, the first 100 students in line received coupons for one free value meal per week for one year. Dustin Le, a freshman at UT, was the first student in line.

University of Tennessee students Robert Barber, left, Zack Mitchell (second row), Michael Fields and Dustin Le are the first in line for free food Tuesday at McDonald's on Cumberland Avenue. To promote completing a remodeling project, McDonald's gave away a free meal once a week for a full year to the first 100 customers with a valid UT student ID. (John Messner/Special to the News Sentinel)

Franchise owner Joe Burger, right, and crew members Charlese Greer, center, and Jenn Ross hand out cards for a year's worth of free food to University of Tennessee students at midnight Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011 at McDonald's on Cumberland Avenue. To promote a completion of a remodeling project, McDonald's gave away a free meal once a week for a full year to the first 100 customers with a valid UT student ID. (John Messner/Special to the News Sentinel)

University of Tennessee students Casey Fitzgerald, left, Carrie Johnson and Savanah Cacace enjoy free food at midnight Tuesday at McDonald's on Cumberland Avenue. They are among the dozens of UT students who lined up for a midnight giveaway of McDonald's meals. (John Messner/Special to the News Sentinel)

When his classic Big Mac, Coke and fries order came across the counter, automatically upsized to a large, University of Tennessee freshman Dustin Le worried for a second that his luck had run out — he didn't have any cash on him.

"It defeats the purpose of free food," said Le, who waited nearly eight hours outside the newly renovated McDonald's on Cumberland Avenue to be the first through the door to receive a free meal at its midnight reopening Tuesday night. "For a second there I was scared they were gonna charge me."

Le and the next 99 UT students behind him actually received not one, but 52 free value meal coupons — one per week for one year — as part of a promotional event to celebrate the renovations. Their first round was upsized on the house.

The campus-area fast food stop, which has operated on the Strip since 1972, had been closed for nearly eight weeks during a top-to-bottom, $1.7 million overhaul.

The newly remodeled restaurant now sports tandem drive-thru lanes, free Wi-Fi Internet access, an added patio area and a modern décor inside and out. It also represents the first new construction to comply with the city of Knoxville's new design guidelines for the Cumberland Avenue corridor.

The Cumberland Avenue Corridor Project, with construction scheduled to start in 2012, is envisioned to make the Strip a visually appealing and pedestrian-friendly corridor with a mix of stores, offices, restaurants and residential buildings. Estimated to take 18 months to complete at a budgeted cost of $14.6 million, it includes federal and city funding.

The project also will put utility lines underground rather than moving them into the alleys bordering Cumberland.

While complying with design visions for a new Cumberland Avenue Corridor, the new McDonald's was rebuilt with customers in mind first.

"It's for the students more than anything," said the location's owner and operator, Joe Burger, who owns four other McDonald's franchises in Knoxville.

Burger expected at least 150 people to show after publicizing the event in the campus newspaper and through social media websites. A crowd of more than 200 cheering students snaked around the building when the doors finally opened, though.

Packs of 20 and 10 coupons for the free value meals — worth $4.99 apiece — also were handed out to the latecomers.

Le and friends Michael Fields, Robert Barber and Zack Mitchell — who all grabbed dinner at a nearby Chinese takeout restaurant and camped out in lawn chairs until midnight to be the first four in line — admitted that they rarely choose McDonald's otherwise. But the lure of free, weekly meals for the next year was enough to make a night of it, they said.

With Thousand Island sauce dripping from the corner of his mouth, Le said he now expects to spend a lot more time there.